Asthma Sufferers - I need your input, please.?!

Asthma Sufferers - I need your input, please.?

I have been battling mild breathing problems for the last 4 months. Started with bronchitis, but problems have persisted. My dr said "you have a touch of asthma & it's making your symptoms last longer. Breathing problems can last 6 months after bronchitis in people with asthma".

If you have asthma, I'd like to know what it FEELS like. What are real symptoms you experience? I've looked at sites, I know what they say. I'm looking for human input.

I am 38 & smoke. Please don't respond to preach about emphysema/smoking, (although some can't help themselves). He did every test under the sun including chest xrays & blood work for cadiovascular disease, because I went in telling him I thought I had emphysema & was going to die.

I don't have emphysema - he said so all 3 times I called & had him recheck my xrays (ugh). I don't have chronic bronchitis (had it once). I am quitting though, because he said smoking with the asthma will make symptoms worse. I am asking about asthma.

3 weeks ago
Thank you all very much for the great answers so far and I will keep trying to quit smoking.

Killbill - My dr didn't say anything about your saliva getting really thick and not to spit, so thanks so very much. Sometimes it feels like I'm choking on it, but the more I spit it out the worse it gets.

The tickling thing too - usually my throat, chin, and roof of my mouth. Some wheezing, but mainly my chest feeling tight and feeling short of breath sometimes. Esp when it's humid outside.

I do have an inhaler and it helps when I use it.

I'll describe what an asthma attack feels like for me. Everyone is different.

My chest will begin to feel tight, almost as if someone is sitting on me. I'll try to breathe in, but it's as if there is no room for the air. If I try too hard to breathe, I'll begin to cough, expelling what little air I did get in. The only way I can breathe is in small, shallow breaths, because a deep one will make me cough, and the more I cough, the tighter my chest becomes. Heart rate begins to shoot up, as if I were running. I can hear the blood pulse in my ears. Blood pressure skyrockets from 115 to over 200 (can't remember the bottom number). Eventually you can hear a whistle or wheeze with every breath, and at that point it hurts to breathe. If I don't run for an inhaler fast, I'll wind up in the ER in an hour.

Mine is primarily allergy triggered, but if I get a case of the giggles, that can bring it on. Also a coughing fit will do it, like if I accidentally swallow something wrong.

I do a lot of focused breathing, sorta Yoga style, to control it. It helps a lot, you can actually slow your heart rate down... I think the blood pressure/heart rate is more from the panic that begins to set in as you start to starve for air, and in turn it increases your need for O2 which sets off a vicious cycle.